All EU member states made a total EUR 283bn in R&D expenditure or 2.03% of GDP, which is on a par with the year before, according to a report released by Eurostat.

R&D expenditure as a percentage of GDP, or R&D intensity, was the highest in Nordic countries Finland (3.17%), Sweden (3.16%) and Denmark (3.08%), closely followed by Austria and Germany at just below 3%.

Slovenia was in the group of countries with R&D intensity above 2% along with Belgium and France.

The bulk of R&D investment came from the business sector (64%), followed by higher education (23%), the government sector (12%) and private non-profit sector (1%).

Slovenia had the highest proportion of R&D investment preformed by the business sector at 77%, followed by Ireland (73%), Hungary (72%), Belgium and Austria (both 71%).